Thursday, October 30, 2008

Why Is McCain Silent on Guns?

Politico.com has a fascinating article about John McCain's having missed an important opportunity by not pushing the Second Amendment agenda.

Guns are a potent force in American politics. As I have pointed out before, had Al Gore won Tennessee, Arkansas or West Virginia — all winnable states — in 2000, he would not have had to win Florida, and he would have become president.But Gore lost all three states, and guns had a lot to do with it. Gun owners simply didn’t believe Gore when he said he was not going to take their guns away. (They did believe Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996 when he said the same thing, but Clinton sold his “Bubba” image effectively and was far more trusted in small-town and rural America.)

The article makes a convincing argument for the benefits of a Republican campaign using the gun control issue to its benefit, but it doesn't offer much to explain McCain's not doing so.

What do you think could explain it? I was thinking the reason is it's not that important in the big picture, but those examples about Gore tell a different story.

2 comments:

First, it is a polarizing issue for undecided voters in my opinion. He risks the much needed undecideds by bringing it up. Especially when his opponent is so clearly in the gun control camp. He doesn't have to bring up the issue, Obama sticks his foot in his mouth often enough that even the left stream media has to cover it.

Second, McCain isn't the strongest supporter of gun rights. He favors eliminating private gun sales, the mythical gun show loop hole. Why risk making what has been so far a positive into something less?

I'm like many of the bloggers I read, I'm not a McCain fan. I'm more voting against Obama then I am for McCain.

McCain is being hoisted on his own McCain/Feingold petard with fundraising....plus the shady buisness with Obama and anonomous doners(Two quick reading bits:http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/29/team-obama-deliberately-avoided-credit-card-security-checks/http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/29/credit-card-experts-explain-the-extent-of-obamas-deception/)

And the NRA has endorced him and is pushing HARD to get the word out on Obama

http://www.gunbanobama.com/

McCain is NOT a strong candidate on guns (Palin is probably the strongest since Teddy Roosivelt) and he has talked a long talk on bullshit issues like "Assault Weapons", and "Gun Show Loophole" (and you should know why they're bullshit issues by now, Mike...don't you?)

So this way he can save money and time, and let the NRA and other Gun groups do the gun work for him.